Kruskal-EDS: Edge Dynamic Stratification
This work addresses the inefficiency of the classical Kruskal’s algorithm, whose Θ(m log m) time complexity—stemming from global edge sorting—becomes prohibitive on sparse graphs or those with heavy-tailed weight distributions. The authors propose a dynamic layered variant of Kruskal’s algorithm that circumvents full sorting through a three-stage pipeline: first, sampling to estimate the weight distribution; second, adaptively constructing a layered structure inspired by the Birkhoff ergodic theorem to dynamically determine the optimal number of layers k*; and third, processing edges layer-by-layer with early termination. By integrating statistical sampling, binary search over quantile-based boundaries, and per-layer sorting, the method achieves near-linear complexity on sparse or skewed-weight graphs. Experiments across 14 graph types confirm correctness in 12 cases, demonstrating up to a 10× speedup over standard Kruskal and a 33× reduction in sorting operations.